Here is an exemplary hotel, according to a discerning Guide Reader, ‘elegant and comfortable’, it has ‘an air of confidence’ that sets guests at ease.

Since Chris Staines and Silvana Bandini bought The Ollerod 18 months ago, its transformation into a ‘restaurant-led’ establishment has continued apace.

‘Bravo! I spent three marvellous days at The Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds.’ A reader in 2019 raves about her stay at this Elizabethan coaching inn with roots in the 1300s.

‘Little has changed’ at this ‘beautifully maintained and furnished’ pink brick Queen Anne mansion. Guests on a return visit after many years likened it to a wonderful 'time warp'.

‘Whenever a special date crops up, we make a beeline for Gravetye and have never been disappointed.’

‘We will stay there again soon – if I can afford it,’ wrote a reader after a first visit to this country house hotel (Relais & Châteaux) last year. Things must be going well – he’s been back, to find everything ‘pretty faultless’.

‘A superb hotel,’ reports a trusted reader in 2019, of Robin Hutson’s Elizabethan manor at the end of a mile-long drive.

‘The drama of dinner is played out in fine style’ at Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s ‘gorgeous’ restaurant-with-rooms in a coastal village.

An 18th-century town house combines with its 17th-century neighbour as an atmospheric small hotel, a stroll from a charming survivor of this market town’s Georgian heyday, the Theatre Royal.

‘Conjuring up an image of a heartier England, with hunting, idiosyncratic aristocracy and solid home comforts', this ‘great inn’ continued to delight readers this year.

‘In a beautiful setting’ in wooded grounds, with trout lake and the River Irfon running through it, Jean-Pierre Mifsud’s hotel is especially praised for its ‘location, ambience and welcoming staff'.

'A real star, we enjoyed our stay,' enthuse Guide regulars, who visited several hotels on either side of this year's Scottish cruise. 'It was by far our favourite.'

‘A very special place,’ say guests in 2019, of Sian and David Ibbotson’s Victorian hunting lodge overlooking the Irish Sea. ‘The accommodating hosts went out of their way, more than once, to ensure we had a terrific time.'

‘They make you feel welcome and at home’ at Sally and David Ruthven-Fox’s dog-friendly hotel ‘by the shores of Loch Sunart and surrounded by hills’.

'A wonderful and special place from which to explore this magical island.'

‘As ever, very enjoyable, and three minutes from the ferry terminal.’ The Urquhart family’s ‘busy, buzzy' café/bar, bookshop, hotel and cultural hub hits all the right notes.

‘Excellent food’ and a ‘lovely’ welcome await visitors to Tim and Patricia Martin and Neil King’s former manse overlooking the Maldivian-blue seas and sugar-white sands of a bite-shaped cove.

We have readers who have been returning for more than 20 years to the Wild family’s traditional hotel ‘in a picturesque village’ once known for oyster fishing.

‘We arrived on a golden Indian summer late afternoon to a warm welcome, culminating in tea on the lawn, looking beyond the ha-ha to a field.’

‘It is impossible to criticise this hotel,’ wrote a reader, praising everything from the service to the ‘delicious food’ at this mellow stone hotel.

In a beautiful location overlooking the Sound of Vaila, on Shetland’s remote west coast, this 18th-century laird’s house, altered and extended, offers a home-from-home experience.

‘The garden was entertaining at mealtimes. There seemed to be more hens on the lawn this time.’ A trusted reader on a third visit captures the spirit of James Moffett’s manor house hotel in a 'delightful Peak District location'.

You can drink champagne in the vaulted bar, as W H Auden did, dine among the ancient stone walls like Philip Larkin, or sleep in a tranquil room once used by Benjamin Britten, at this hotel in the monastic buildings of a dissolved abbey.

On the edge of the village, with the Peak District on the doorstep, this Jacobean-style Edwardian manor house stands in a beautifully tended garden with sculpted box and yews, potager and arboretum.